


The Doctor in the Delta Quadrant

by paperlessprinter



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Crossover, Episode Remix, Episode: s04e25 One, Episode: s05e07 Amy's Choice, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2018-08-14 22:37:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8031649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperlessprinter/pseuds/paperlessprinter
Summary: When the TARDIS is encased in ice and falling towards a frozen star thanks to the Dream Lord, The Doctor, Amy and Rory are rescued by a Starfleet vessel, but not the one that they are familiar with.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> End of Season 4/Beginning of Season 5 for Voyager  
> Set during series 5 Doctor Who *but* post TNG comic crossover, Assimilation². Potential spoilers

Stardate: 52605.3 

Harry Kim was halfway through a quiet alpha shift on the Bridge, when his console beeped for his attention. Sensors had found something noteworthy, and it took him a couple times reading the data before he managed to alert Captain Janeway. 

“Captain, I’m detecting another unidentified object floating in space.” 

“An UFO? Don’t see that every day.” Tom called from the conn. He and Harry had just started exploring a Captain Proton holodeck story, and the pilot was an aficionado of the _early_ science fiction stories from Earth's past. 

“Thank you, Mr. Paris.” Janeway said from her seat and then turned to face her ops officer. “Another, Mr. Kim?” 

“We found that truck a few years ago before we encountered the group of 37s.”

The Captain was intrigued. She rose to move next to the Ensign at ops. “Is this another truck?” They had encountered a 1936 Ford pickup floating in space three years ago. When investigating, they discovered several humans, including Amelia Earhart who had been abducted from Earth by aliens. 

Harry brought up the recorded data from when he had found the truck as reference. He showed both sets of data to Janeway. “We found the truck through tracking a trail of iron oxide, but this is coming up as organic.” 

“Organic?”

Harry tapped a few buttons on his console. “Wood. It would appear.” 

Janeway considered the new information for a moment. “Do we have a visual?”

After a couple quick button taps, the viewscreen in front of the bridge displayed a small blue wooden box, floating rather aimlessly. It was completely covered in ice and listing to one side. 

The bridge crew stared in silence. Not even Tom offered one of his usual wisecracks. Janeway drifted back down to her command chair, eyes fixed on the slowly rotating box. Of all the things to stumble upon in the the cold vacuum of space, she had never expected something organic.

“How far away is it?” She asked.

“Still 75,000 kilometers.” 

“Tom, take us closer. One-quarter impulse.” Janeway finally took her eyes off the viewscreen, just for a moment so she could sit down. 

Janeway asked for the image to be magnified. The box nearly filled the viewscreen now. Three of the sides were identical wood panels. Beneath the sheet of ice some of the blue paint was chipped or thinning. The bottom base was slightly wider, while the top had what appeared to be a lamp. 

The fourth panel slowly rotated into view and Janeway gasped. She had waited for visual confirmation that it was the same box that Jean-Luc picard had described in his logs before deciding what action to take.

“Can we beam it aboard?”

“Captain,” Tuvok called from his Tactical post.”I would not advise doing so until we have identified what this is exactly.” 

"Looks like a Police Public Call Box," Tom piped up, reading the sign on the top of each panel.

Janeway didn’t respond but instead walked to the other side of the bridge where Tuvok stood at his post. “May I?” she asked as she approached his console. The Vulcan raised an eyebrow at this curious request of his captain but stepped back to give her better access. 

After entering one of her many authorization codes, Janeway showed her security officer Picard’s log. “It was classified as level 9 clearance nearly 7 years ago,” she kept her voice low.

Tuvok studied the readout before giving his consent. “Very well.”

Janeway looked over to her ops officer and nodded. 

“Transporters are having difficulty locking on.” Harry’s console beeped once again. “Captain, you’re not going to believe this, but I’m detecting three lifesigns inside the box. Two of them are extremely weak.”

“Can we beam them from the box?” she asked. 

Ensign Kim frantically tapped his console, trying to work the transporter beam to do his will. Finally after a long couple of minutes he looked over at Captain Janeway. “Beamed them directly to sickbay.”

“Good work Harry.” Janeway tapped her combadge. “Janeway to Sickbay, do you have them?”

“Acknowledged Captain.” The voice of Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram filtered through the comms. 

"On my way." 

The captain was the only one on the bridge who knew who the occupants of the box could be. She did not invite anyone one, not even her first officer or Tuvok to join her. She hesitated before moving to the turbolift. "Tom take us to tractor beam range. If we can't beam that aboard we'll have to tow it."

"Aye Captain." 

Chakotay rose from his chair and asked what was going on. She flashed him a quick smile. "Captain's prerogative, Chakotay. I will of course bring you all up to speed as soon as I can. But for now you have the bridge." Chakotay gave her a smile of his own and sat back down. 

The turbolift opened and she made a quick getaway. Until the situation was under control she was duty bound to honor the level 9 clearance the Doctor and his TARDIS was classified under.


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor knew they were in danger, that it was looking as grim as it had ever looked in recent memory. He, Amy and Rory were trapped on a frozen TARDIS without any power to get away from the cold star. The last thing he remembered was Amy deciding that her Leadworth life was indeed a dream and the only way to wake up was to ram the van into the house. 

He had really been hoping the cold star was a dream too. 

The three of them were in a heap around the console in an effort to conserve body heat. It wasn't quite working as the Doctor could still feel that his fingers toes and other parts were frozen solid. 

It was one of the very few times his Time Lord physiology didn't give him an edge over his human companions. He was sure he felt as cold as Amy and Rory did but was too tired to outright ask them. 

He felt very sleepy. A very small but insistent part of his brain kept jabbering on about how easy it'd be to just fall asleep right there and never wake up. Another part countered and said he'd probably regenerate, wake up and still be just as cold as he was now unless he managed a way to get them out of there. 

He hadn't decided on a course of action yet when he felt a pull of a transporter that he hadn't felt in a while. The last thought he had before passing out was he was so grateful that the _Enterprise_ had found them when they did. 

~~~

The next thing the Doctor found himself looking up at bright unfamiliar lights. He was laying on a bed and much warmer than before which he was grateful for. A balding man suddenly appeared above him causing him to nearly fall off the bed. 

"Amy! Rory! Where are they are they alright? If you rescued me did you rescue them? Please tell me you have them!" He frantically babbled. 

The balding man looked momentarily confused. "There there," he shushed the Doctor trying to calm him down. "Everything's alright. We've got your friends. I've kept them sedated because I need to treat their frostbite that's all."

The Doctor managed to escape the balding man and slide off the bed despite his protests. He rushed over to the side of the room where Amy and Rory were also laying on beds. Despite what he was told he still took out his sonic screwdriver and began to scan them before the balding man caught him. "What are you doing? As I said your friends are perfectly fine save for the frostbite."

The Doctor tried to explain to his rescuer that he was only scanning his companions but as he babbled on and on about the abilities of his trusted tool all he got was another blank look. At that moment the door hissed open and a woman with chin length auburn hair strode into the room. The Doctor usually had a good read on people and one look at her gave him the impression she was in charge. The four pips at her collar was a good indication of that.

"So this isn't the _Enterprise_ then." He said. 

The Captain spoke up. "Doctor. Meet the Doctor."

Both the Time Lord and the balding man looked at each other with a slightly bewildered smile. If the Doctor had been less dazed he would have reached out and enthusiastically shook the other doctor's hand. He always enjoyed meeting fellow doctors regardless of the time and place. 

"Captain, the universal translator hasn't been able to pick up on this doctor's language. I have no idea what he's been babbling on about for the last five minutes." 

"Oi! I do not babble. Well sometimes but only when the mood strikes me or I really like what I'm talking about. Okay maybe I do babble but it's well worth it. Wait what do you mean you haven't understood me? There's something wrong with your translators? No the TARDIS should be translating for me." 

The Captain looked between the two doctors for a moment before addressing the Time Lord. "Doctor, My name is Captain Janeway, you're on the starship _Voyager._ Forgive me, but Captain Picard never mentioned any language barriers in his log when you encountered him seven years ago. Do you know Federation Standard?"

"You mean English? Of course I do. Sorry, I didn't realize there were translation difficulties. Actually I have to enquire about my ship. Normally... she translates for me if I'm speaking Gallifreyan. Do you have her?" The Doctor had to force himself to take a breath and slow down. His anxiety was still not quite back to normal despite nearly dying on a frozen TARDIS. His experience with humans told him that things went smoother whenever he could slow himself down to their speed whenever encountering a new situation. 

"I'm sorry Doctor we were having difficulty beaming it aboard. We discovered your companions had extremely weak lifesigns so we beamed you to Sick Bay." She gestured to the balding man. "But they're in excellent hands with our doctor." 

"I suppose she's resisting the transporters... Or maybe your transporters are having a hard time with the dimensionally transcendental..." The Doctor mused out loud.

"If I remember Captain Picard's logs correctly, you landed your ship on the _Enterprise_ holodeck. Would you be able to do that again? Would it be possible to use one of our cargo bays since we only have a couple of holodecks and like to keep them free for recreation?"

The Doctor looked again at Amy and Rory. For the most part they looked like they were sleeping peacefully. The emergency medical hologram had moved to their bedsides to check their vitals. Voyager's physician had to consult a couple monitors as well as his own scanning device to find out the information that the Time Lord could obtain with a wave of his trusty sonic screwdriver. Despite the vibe of competence and trust he had gleaned from the Captain within five seconds, it was still difficult to leave his companions, especially when they were vulnerable. 

"Your friends will be fine Doctor. They'll probably be awake by the time you get your ship on board." 

The Time Lord nodded finally then followed Captain Janeway out of Sickbay.


	3. Chapter 3

The poor transporter tech could not beam the Doctor to his TARDIS, no matter how many times they tried. Even B'Elanna Torres, the chief engineer, tried and could not get the beam out process to complete. When she encountered the computer simply refusing to comply, she started to let out a few choice Klingon swears. The Doctor had remained on the transporter pad while they worked, but once B'Elanna uttered her tenth swear he bounded off and offered to take a look. 

“The computer doesn't recognize your ship,” the frazzled tech offered while the chief engineer simply glowered. It took a little more cajoling from the Time Lord but the Starfleet officers finally relinquished control of their console. The Doctor tapped a few commands, waved his sonic screwdriver and tapped again. The console went black, with some computer code appearing where buttons usually were. Before B’Elanna could stop him, he typed in a few new lines of code, waved his screwdriver once more. The console rebooted, and appeared normal. Satisfied, the Doctor returned to the pad. 

B’Elanna and the tech simply stared at the console before finding it exactly as it was before. The only difference was once they entered the coordinates, the TARDIS came up on the display. It took a few seconds for them to realize they could finally send the Doctor to his ship. 

Once the transporter had finally deposited him back on his TARDIS, the Doctor was surprised to find the room still dark and encrusted with ice. Most of the controls were inoperable. He needed another console, so he set off down one of the many hallways in search of one. Thankfully TARDIS saved old desktop themes. Unfortunately there was no rhyme or reason to where she put them. Sometimes, his companions would find one by mistake when they were off looking for something more important like a kitchen. 

The first three rooms the Doctor ducked into were spare bedrooms, and a kitchen for good measure. He shook his head. He didn’t normally get lost in his own TARDIS. Something must still be off from their encounter with the Dream Lord. He frowned and patted the door frame, searching for his old girl. She was still there, but sluggish. The next room was an old wooden console he’d last used when he carried around a long scarf and let his curls out. It wasn’t ideal since he needed to get underneath the console and remove most of the wood paneling to access the computer, but it’d do in a pinch. 

The TARDIS thought she was still under attack, and drifting towards the cold star. The Doctor knew that was a dream as well, and the Dream Lord lied when he said one was a dream and one was reality. Had Voyager not intervened, he probably would have blown up his TARDIS just to ensure the Dream Lord couldn’t influence them any longer. He hated how his dark personality was strong enough to manifest itself. 

Sprawled on his back, the Doctor had to get to the root of a computer for the second time in the span of ten minutes. At least he knew his TARDIS much more intimately than a Starfleet computer. He could have an almost proper conversation, instead of just inputting code that allowed a machine to recognize something dimensionally transcendent. His was much more than a machine. 

It didn’t take long to discover there was a small piece of physic pollen that had found its way into the TARDIS innards. The Leadworth dream was probably Rory’s and the cold star was maybe Amy’s, but the Dream Lord was definitely the Doctor’s. He hadn’t mentioned that little tidbit to his companions before they were rescued by Voyager. So it was yet another item added to the long list of things he kept from companions. Most of the time he had good intentions like wanting to protect them. But the Dream Lord fell into the grey area of keeping some of the darker sides of the Doctor in the shadow. If his companions could see the whole Time Lord for who he really was, most of them would slowly back out of the TARDIS, never looking back. 

With the pollen extracted, the Doctor was able to coax some life into his TARDIS. Once she scanned the area and realized they were nowhere near that cold star she warmed up pretty quickly, the ice melting away as the Doctor made his way back to the main console room. 

Plotting a course onto Voyager proved more difficult than the Doctor initially thought, especially when he just practically ended up on the Enterprise. Captain Janeway had asked the Doctor to avoid landing in the holodeck since she wanted to keep an open door policy for her crew. She pointed out that unlike the Galaxy class, the Intrepid class starship only had two holodecks. Voyager was a lot smaller, so the Doctor found a cargo bay as a suitable alternative. He tapped a few commands into his keypad and threw the dematerialize lever. The TARDIS groaned as usual. After how grim it was earlier the sounds his precious ship made were more comforting than ever. 

The Doctor bounded out and found himself face to face with a young blonde woman. 

"Hello," he said, making sure to use English just in case his TARDIS still wasn't translating. 

She didn't say hello back but inclined her head in acknowledgment. She didn't look startled or alarmed to find a blue box materialize out of thin air. 

"Sorry the Captain told me not to land in a holodeck. Didn't know you'd be here. I'm the Doctor by the way." He held his hand out but she did not take it. 

"You may call me Seven of Nine."

"Can you tell me how to get back to Sickbay?"

"Deck 5. Take the turbolift at the end of the corridor."

"Thanks."

In response Seven nodded again and returned to her work.


	4. Chapter 4

It didn’t take long for the Doctor to reawaken his TARDIS and bring it aboard Voyager. So by the time he returned to Sickbay, Amy and Rory were both awake, to the Time Lord’s relief. He left knowing they were fine, but it still made him anxious to see his companions out of action. They were sitting up in their respective beds, facing each other while the ship’s doctor examined them. 

“Oi, this doesn’t look like the Enterprise.” Amy said when she spotted the Time Lord. 

The Emergency Medical Hologram nodded as he finished up their exams. “You’re aboard Voyager. We’re a Federation ship just like the Enterprise.” 

“We’re a few years later than our visit on the Enterprise. Smaller ship this time.” The Doctor added. 

“So this isn’t another dream?” Rory asked. He had felt disorientated when he woke up in an unfamiliar bed. He remembered dying in the nursery, as he failed to protect Amy from the aliens inhabiting the senior citizens of Leadworth. And then he woke up in the TARDIS frozen in a heap with Amy and the Doctor. He was so convinced that Leadworth was real while the TARDIS was a dream. 

The Doctor shook his head. “We’ve been on a starship like this before. I’m assuming we somehow stumbled into the same universe.” 

“As long as there’s no Borg this time. I guess this is better than another dream.” Rory slid off the biobed and joined the Time Lord. 

Amy quickly followed her husband. 

“Your friends have are in good health, Doctor. There weren’t any lasting effects from their hypothermia or frostbite.” The EMH paused and put away his medical tricorder. “Forgive me, but do you have a name? What should I call you?”

“Just the Doctor will do. And what about you, the Captain also introduced you as the doctor.”

The hologram shook his head and smiled. “I’m afraid I have yet to pick a name that suits me. Everyone onboard just calls me Doc, or Doctor.” The EMH became interested in names after gaining sentience almost four years ago. “The Captain wanted to meet you in her ready room when you awake.”

“I’m assuming the Bridge is on Deck 1?” The Time Lord asked.

“Correct. Would you like me to accompany you?”

“I think we’ll be fine, Voyager is a lot smaller than the Enterprise is. Come on, Ponds, the captain is waiting for us.”

“Thanks Doc.” Rory said as the trio left Sick Bay. They followed the Time Lord to a turbolift, and it wasn’t long before they found themselves in Voyager’s command center. Amy saw it was a lot less beige than Captain Picard’s bridge,and the lights were a bit dimmer than in Sick Bay. Instead of a raised horseshoe, the center section was lower for some reason. 

“Captain Janeway is in her ready room, waiting for you.” A man in a red shouldered uniform stood up from his chair in the center of the Bridge and pointed to the side where there was a set of doors. “I’m Commander Chakotay, first officer. Welcome aboard.” 

Amy and Rory nodded in greeting. There were a handful of other officers at their posts. Most paid the visitors no mind and focused on their duties. A man in a yellow shouldered uniform who looked barely a few years older than Rory smiled as they passed his console on the way to the captain’s ready room. 

The door opened for the trio and they found Captain Janeway sitting at her desk, coffee cup at her elbow. Amy and Rory caught their first glimpse of space through the large windows. Right beneath them were a couch. 

Captain Janeway stood briefly. “Welcome aboard Voyager. I’m Captain Kathryn Janeway.” She quickly shock the Doctor’s, Amy’s and Rory’s hands before sitting down. There were three chairs that had been pulled in front of her desk. “Please have a seat. Would you like some coffee?”

“Do you have any tea?” Rory asked, looking for a kettle tucked away somewhere in the captain’s office. . 

“What kind?” Janeway rose from her chair and walked up to a glass insert on the wall.

“Oh, uh… decaf.”

“Decaf black tea, hot” Janeway spoke, and suddenly a metal cup materialized within the glass insert. 

“Thanks,” Rory gratefully accepted the beverage as Janeway sat down.

“Doctor - before we begin, you don’t have a name do you?” She took a sip of her coffee. 

“Just the Doctor please.”

“Well, we certainly were surprised to find your ship drifting and covered in ice. I take it you were able to bring it aboard Voyager?”

The Time Lord nodded. “It’s in the cargo bay. With Seven of Nine.” 

“Ah, so you noticed we’ve encountered the Borg before.”

“Borg?” Rory looked up from his tea, alarm radiating from his face.

“Seven of Nine is a crew member that was liberated from the Borg Collective approximately a year ago. She was a child when she was assimilated.”

Amy and Rory both shuddered at the thought of assimilation at such a young age.

“So Doctor, are the Cybermen back? We haven’t had much trouble with the Borg recently.” 

“And I haven’t encountered the Cybermen recently either. As far as I know, there isn’t anything to worry about.” 

The captain smiled. “Well that’s a relief. From Captain Picard’s log, I thought your appearance meant trouble would be around the corner. We’ve been stranded in the delta quadrant for the last four years, and we’ve had our run ins with trouble.” She leaned back in her chair. “But it’s been relatively quiet the last couple weeks, knock on metaphorical wood. Doctor, you and your companions are welcome to stay aboard.” 

“Thank you for your hospitality captain.” 

“Do you need quarters? I’m sure Commander Chakotay could find some spare rooms.”

“Well, do you think Seven of Nine would mind us three going through her cargo bay to get to the TARDIS?”

“I’ll ask Chakotay to get right on it then.” 

“Captain Janeway to the Bridge.” The voice of the first officer suddenly came into the room. Rory searched for a speaker somewhere but quickly gave up. 

“Duty calls. Why don’t you join us Doctor.” Captain Janeway said as she stood up. 

“Captain, this may be an unusual question, but is there a bathroom nearby. I mean I can always go to the TARDIS.” Amy asked as the trio rose from their chairs. 

Janeway nodded. “Across the bridge, go through the briefing room. There’s a bathroom in the adjacent hallway."


	5. Chapter 5

The image on the viewscreen that greeted Captain Janeway, the Doctor, and Rory was a rather angry looking, large nebula that filled the screen. To Rory, it looked like it was threatening to break the screen and spill into the bridge. 

“What have we got here?” Janeway asked as she settled into the seat next to Chakotay. Rather than sit on the ledges beside the command team, the Doctor and Rory stood behind them. Amy returned after taking care of business. 

Harry read from his console. “Mutara class. There are a few trace constituents that aren't in our database, but that seems to be the only other interesting aspect about the nebula.” 

“The nebula is vast, Captain. It extends beyond the reach of our sensors.” Tuvok said from his security post.

“Doctor, have you seen anything this large?” Janeway looked up from her chair. 

The Doctor shrugged. “Looks like a run of the mill nebula Captain. What did you call it? Mutara class? Never heard the term but I can’t sense anything amiss.” 

“That’s good to hear.” Janeway faced front. “Tom, take us in at half impulse.” 

There was a beep from the Ops console, followed by the Tactical one. Soon every console on the bridge echoed. For Amy and Rory it sounded cacophonous but for the Starfleet personnel, it was just another day at the office. 

Harry was the first to speak. “I’m detecting a radioactive field - Oh.” he gasped. 

“Harry?”

“Nothing, just a headache.”

“Maybe you should go to Sickbay,” Chakotay spoke up. 

“I’ll go with him,” Rory added. “Stomach ache.” He clutched his gut and headed to the turbolift. Amy moaned “Something’s really wrong Doctor.” and joined Rory. Harry remained at his post.

As Voyager headed further into the nebula, the pain got worse and worse. Soon everyone on the bridge, except for the Time Lord, was incapacitated in some way. 

“Tom, turn us around! Get us out of here,” Janeway ordered. She tapped her combadge. “Janeway to the Doctor, medical emergency.”

The Doctor moved over to where the Captain was slumped against the railing. He could tell everyone on the Bridge was in intense pain. For once in a very long time, he wasn’t sure exactly what to do. If everyone on the Bridge was incapacitated then the whole ship must be as well. He hoped Amy and Rory made it to Sickbay. But this wasn’t a problem he could sonic away with his screwdriver. 

Tom fell out of his seat before he could course correct. Officers that worked behind the command team were on the floor withering. 

“I’m being inundated with calls. What happened?” came a tinny voice from her combadge. 

“Some kind of nebula. We need help.”

“Seven’s on her way Captain.”

When the captain looked up at the Time Lord, she had a burn on her temple.

Tuvok had not groaned out loud but was shaking with pain. He slowly made his way to the helm. The Doctor realized what the Vulcan security officer wanted to do and made a beeline to Tom’s post. After studying the console, he tapped a couple buttons and set Voyager on a quick 180. “Hang on just a bit longer. Course laid in.”

Tuvok nodded and returned to his post. Chakotay looked at the Doctor. “Thanks.” He still looked pale, as did Tom and Harry. Tom got up and slid back into his seat, though it took him a bit to get his bearings. Once he made sure Tom was okay, the Doctor moved back to the center of the bridge. 

The pain diminished for everyone as soon as Voyager turned around. As they moved out of the nebula, Harry felt his headache disappear. Janeway could return to her command post instead of sitting on the floor, hunched over by the railing. Chakotay’s color returned. Tom made sure they were back at their previous position, completely out of the nebula. 

The turbolift doors hissed open to reveal Seven of Nine with a dermal regenerator in hand. The Doctor and the Borg drone bent down to help one of the gold shirts who hadn’t gotten back up now that they were clear of the nebula. But when Seven turned him over, they found his face burned nearly beyond recognition. Her dermal regenerator couldn’t help him.

“He’s dead,” she said. The Doctor sighed and looked at the startled face of the Captain. No one expected this nebula to be so dangerous that Voyager would lose one of its own.


	6. Chapter 6

Janeway paused only a moment with a flash of sadness before her command face returned. Before they could proceed, she needed more information. Once the situation on the bridge was under control, she and Seven of Nine headed to astrometrics. The Time Lord asked to join. Janeway nodded.

It didn’t take long for Seven of Nine to bring up the nebula on the giant display that took up a whole wall of astrometrics. She marked _Voyager_ ’s location and then zoomed out so that the entire display was the nebula.

“It extends for at least one hundred and ten light years. Possibly more.”

“At the very least it would take us well over a month to go through it,” the Captain said. “And more than a year to get around it.”

“The TARDIS could make it in less than two weeks, but that’s if it’s only Amy Rory and I. I could take everyone aboard _Voyager_ , but the ship itself would stay behind. Tractoring it would take too long and drain the TARDIS’s power. Sorry Captain, I have no idea how we’d get your ship across safely.” The Doctor said.  

“We could never abandon _Voyager_ in the middle of the Delta Quadrant.”

“The crew was unable to tolerate even a few minutes in the nebula. Only myself and the Time Lord seemed unaffected. We couldn’t survive a month.” Seven of Nine added.

“We've come fifteen thousand light years in four years. We haven't been stopped yet. Not by temporal anomalies, warp core breaches, or hostile aliens. And I am damned if I'm going to be stopped by a nebula.”

Janeway rested her hands on her hips. She spared one more glance at the enormous nebula before turning on her heels. “Seven see if you can extend the sensors to the other edge of the nebula. Launch a probe if you need to. I’ll be in Sickbay.”

The Doctor followed Janeway to a nearby turbolift.

It was controlled chaos in sickbay. The emergency medical hologram had dozens of crewmembers waiting on him. Most had burns. Some had headaches or gastric distress as well. If the ship had stayed longer in the nebula it would have been a lot worse.

Once Rory was feeling better, he followed the hologram around and offered his help. Sickbay soon calmed down in time for the doors to hiss open. Janeway strode in followed by the Time Lord.

“Doctor?” the captain asked.

Both Doctors turned towards Janeway, even though she meant the member of Starfleet.

“Have you analyzed the nebula?”

The hologram approached his captain. “I was just about to. You’ll be pleased to know there weren’t many casualties this time, though I’m not sure why we were all affected by the nebula.” The Doctor beamed aboard a sample of the nebula into a container and started scanning it.

“Seven of Nine was fine,” the captain pointed out. “Must be because she’s part Borg.”

The Doctor finished his scans. “It looks like the subnucleonic radiation is to blame. Of all the bad radiations out there… this one is near the top. Even the briefest exposure is devastating to organic tissue.”

“Is there any kind of protection?”

“I can only think of one… stasis chambers for everyone.”

“Are you suggesting that the entire crew be put in suspended animation?” The captain asked.

The Doctor nodded. “I’d stay and monitor everyone. And Seven would be with me if she’s truly immune.”

“Are there any other options? Something less drastic? Forgive me, Doctor, I’m just not comfortable with the idea of leaving _Voyager_ in the hands of a hologram and a crew member who has been with us for barely a year.”

The Doctor gestured toward the Time Lord. “What about his ship?”

“If we went with the TARDIS then we would have to leave _Voyager_ behind. Something I can not do as a Starfleet Captain.” Janeway sighed.

“I’m immune though. I can help your doctor with the monitoring. Should be easy enough.”

Janeway crossed her arms. “I’ll take it under advisement, Doctor, thank you. Would Amy and Rory be safe in the TARDIS?”

“I’m not sure yet, I have to crunch some numbers. But I  think they’d much rather prefer the TARDIS over stasis pods. No offense Captain.”

“Yes, we would thanks Doctor.” Amy piped up from behind the hologram. Rory nodded, terrified they were even having this conversation.

“In fact, why don’t I offer my TARDIS as an alternative? Provided it’s safe of course!” The Doctor smiled. “If you’ll excuse me. Come on Amy and Rory.” The trio headed to the cargo bay.

 

“Doctor are you sure this is a good idea?” Rory asked. They were in the TARDIS. The Doctor was fiddling with one panel of his console, while Amy paced and Rory leaned against the railing.

“I said I’d offer the TARDIS as an alternative, Rory. No good offering it if it isn’t safe.”

It didn’t take as much effort to leave _Voyager_ as it did to get the TARDIS aboard thankfully. The TARDIS materialized outside the ship on the edge of the nebula.

“Ready?” the Time Lord asked his companions. He ran around to another panel of the console.

“Sure,” Amy replied.

“No,” Rory muttered under his breath.

The Doctor flipped a switch and the TARDIS lumbered towards the nebula. Rory scrunched his eyes closed, waiting for the pain to return. Amy came over and held his hand. No sense making fun of him for being scared when they were both in crippling pain only a short time ago.

But the pain never came. The Doctor piloted the TARDIS as far into the nebula as _Voyager_ got, and then a little further just to be sure. He kept a close eye on his companions.

“Nothing out of the ordinary.” He pulled the materialization lever with a smile and the familiar wheezing announced their return to the cargo bay.


End file.
